Past Blog Posts

DHS announced that it has issued a waiver that eliminates its “obligation to comply with various laws” in the vicinity of the U.S.-Mexico border, beginning at the Santa Teresa, New Mexico port of entry and extending 20 miles westward, in order to “ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads.” DHS published a notice of determination regarding the waiver in the Federal Register on January 22, 2018.

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A District court order in Regents of the University of California v. DHS, which directed DHS to maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis on the same terms and conditions as were in effect before the September 5, 2017, rescission of DACA, including allowing DACA enrollees to renew their enrollments, with certain exceptions.

a number of claims about the family-based immigration system made by elected officials and media pundits in recent weeks, debunking many of them. CBS News also fact checked President Trump’s recent characterization of the Diversity Visa Lottery program, explaining how the program actually functions

Answer: U.S. immigration law is very complex, and there is much confusion as to how it works. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA), the body of law governing current immigration policy, provides for an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family members. Lawful permanent residency allows a foreign national to work and live lawfully and permanently in the United States. Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) are eligible to apply for nearly all jobs (i.e., jobs not legitimately restricted to U.S. citizens) and can remain in the country even if they are unemployed. Each year the United States also admits noncitizens on a temporary basis. Annually, Congress and the President determine a separate number for refugee admissions.

Immigration to the United States is based upon the following principles: the reunification of families, admitting immigrants with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy, protecting refugees, and promoting diversity. This fact sheet provides basic information about how the U.S. legal immigration system is designed.

One President cannot simply ‘erase’ all the laws regarding immigration to create fear and to try to make political points. One such way to come into the U.S. is based on Family Immigration. Family unification is an important principle governing immigration policy. The family-based immigration category allows U.S. citizens and LPRs to bring certain family members to the United States. Family-based immigrants are admitted either as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or through the family preference system.

In County of Santa Clara v. Trump, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide permanent injunction against §9(a) of Executive Order 13768, which blocks so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” from receiving federal grant money. District Judge William H. Orrick found the plaintiffs demonstrated that the executive order has caused and will cause them constitutional injuries by violating the separation of powers doctrine and depriving them of their Tenth and Fifth Amendment rights.

Politico reports on the not-guilty verdict issued by a jury yesterday in the trial of Mexican national Jose Ines Garcia Zarate for the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco in 2015. In response to the verdict, both Attorney General Jeffrey Sessionsand ICE Deputy Director Tom Homan issued statements accusing officials in so-called “sanctuary cities” of endangering their constituents.

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oday a federal judge largely blocked the Trump administration from implementing the latest version of the president’s controversial travel ban, setting up yet another legal showdown on the extent of the executive branch’s powers when it comes to setting immigration policy. The latest ban was set to fully go into effect in the early morning hours of Wednesday, barring various types of travelers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, North Korea, and Venezuela. Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii wrote that the latest ban “suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: it lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States.